Kyrgyzstan is "on the brink of civil war," according Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev, who warned that the country could be ripped apart
by the current political upheaval.

The Russian president was speaking after attending the nuclear security summit in Washington.

"Some (Kyrgyz) political leaders will have to make a decision about their fate," he said, after Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev offered to resign for the first time since he was ousted in bloody protests last week.

The Russian leader called for officials to avoid further bloodshed after the protests left 83 dead in the strategic Central Asian country.

"The risk of Kyrgyzstan breaking apart - into the south and the north - really exists," Medvedev warned after giving a speech at the US think tank, the Brookings Institution.

The Russian leader rejected assertions however that Moscow had been angered by Bakiyev's decision to allow a US military facility in Kyrgyzstan to remain open. "How can Russia object to decisions of a sovereign state?" he said.